Trump's slash-and-burn agenda hits DOD's cyber workforce

Politico

27-05-2025

With help from Maggie Miller and John Sakellariadis
Driving the day
— The Defense Department is bulldozing through its cyber workforce, and former Pentagon officials and experts warn it could cause irreparable damage to the nation's cyber defenses.
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Happening This Week
On Wednesday: The House Homeland Security Committee holds a field hearing on 'Innovation Nation: Leveraging Technology to Secure Cyberspace and Streamline Compliance' at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. 5 p.m.
At the Agencies
CUTS AT THE PENTAGON — The Defense Department's cybersecurity workforce is preparing to take a hit as the Trump administration continues its workforce blitz across agencies. At the DOD, cyber agencies — including the Defense Information Systems Agency and U.S. Cyber Command — have faced staffing cuts within the last month that worry lawmakers, former Pentagon officials and cyber experts alike.
Last week, Maggie reported that Lt. Gen. Paul Stanton, head of DISA, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee's cyber subcommittee that the agency will lose around 10 percent of its staff to cuts and resignations. Between 5 percent and 8 percent of the U.S. Cyber Command personnel also took the Trump administration's offer of deferred resignation this month.
While the scope of the Pentagon workforce reduction remains unclear, former DOD officials and cyber experts warn that sweeping cuts across the board may leave certain areas severely understaffed and could destabilize cyber operations.
— Back-and-forth: President Donald Trump and his administration have drawn sharp criticism for ousting officials who don't align with his agenda — including Gen. Timothy Haugh, the former head of the NSA and Cyber Command, and Chris Krebs, the former head of CISA in Trump's first term. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has faced similar backlash over his removal of high-ranking officers across the military.
Former DOD officials are concerned that removals at the top are creating a ripple effect throughout the workforce and weakening the nation's ability to fight back effectively.
'You lost a person, and that expertise is lost to the government forever,' said one former Defense Department official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the cuts. 'The people who remain don't have the institutional knowledge base.'
Patrick Johnson, director of the DOD chief information officer's Workforce Innovation Directorate, pushed back against concerns of a haphazard hatchet of the cyber workforce, saying on Thursday that the office is aligning itself with the DOD's broader personnel strategy of reducing the federal civilian workforce. He added that the department is working to curb the potential blowback through selective staffing cuts and is focused on opportunities to teach remaining staff new skills on the job.
But Pentagon officials are already talking about bringing back ousted staff. When testifying before Congress last week, Stanton told lawmakers that the personnel changes give the agency 'an opportunity to ruthlessly realign and operationalize what is an evolving mission,' but added that some of the vacated roles will likely be reinstated.
'We need to rehire the right people into the right positions to then lead us forward,' Stanton testified.
A second former DOD official, also granted anonymity to speak candidly, said there are ways to make precision cuts while minimizing long-term damage to cyber operations, including giving operational commanders oversight over where staff reductions are made.
— Clearing house as threats circle in: While Pentagon staff continue to weigh whether to take employment deferment offers or potentially face layoffs, the Defense Department has seen an injection of funds to enhance cyber offensive measures for Indo-Pacific Command through the budget reconciliation bill passed by the House late last week.
Experts say this funding to boost cyber offensive measures is a step in the right direction, though workforce cuts could undermine the success of these efforts.
'China and Russia are increasing the scope and complexity of their attacks against U.S. military networks and vital critical infrastructure,' said retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center for Cyber and Technology at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, adding that the Pentagon's cyber workforce needs 'resource and personnel plus ups not cuts.'
On The Hill
WEST COAST HEARING — The House Homeland Security Committee is decamping to Silicon Valley this week for a field hearing at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
The hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, was set so lawmakers could get a closer look at where the U.S. stands in cyberspace. Witnesses are set to include representatives from cyber and tech giants Google and Palo Alto Networks, and committee members plan to discuss how to better secure U.S. critical infrastructure networks.
'This hearing is an opportunity to hear directly from technology leaders, innovators and researchers about what's working and what isn't,' Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), chair of the panel's cyber subcommittee, told Axios when the hearing was announced.
The International Scene
ENCRYPTION ON THE LINE — The Center for Democracy and Technology Europe is joining 88 other advocacy groups, cybersecurity experts and companies to urge the European Commission to consider how the European Internal Security Strategy, also known as ProtectEU, could hurt the future of end-to-end encryption in the EU.
In a letter sent to the European Commission on Monday, the groups said that ProtectEU's proposed Technology Roadmap on Encryption — which would enable law enforcement authorities to lawfully access encrypted data — could harm cybersecurity and privacy protections for EU citizens.
The European Commission has recently focused on end-to-end encryption to crack down on the distribution of child sex abuse material by requiring messaging platforms to conduct blanket scans on content, even if the platforms offer end-to-end encryption.
The efforts have been met with backlash from digital advocates and the tech industry over the risks posed to EU citizens' data privacy and their devices' cybersecurity.
The groups called on the European Commission to acknowledge that strong encryption tools won't hinder EU security, edit the proposed Technology Roadmap to include the benefits of encryption and consult with private companies, digital advocates and cybersecurity experts to add 'credibility' to the document.
Quick Bytes
A FAN, THIS AGENCY IS — A seemingly ordinary Star Wars fan website from the early 2010s was built by the CIA to covertly communicate with its informants around the world, Joseph Cox writes for 404 Media.
AI CHIPS — Nvidia will launch a newer — and cheaper — AI chipset for China after recent U.S. export restrictions on the company's H20 chips, Liam Mo and Fanny Potkin report for Reuters.
DOWNSIZING YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT — Wired's Matt Burgess, Sophie Johal and Michaela Neville prepared a guide on the basics of keeping your digital footprint locked down.
Chat soon.
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